Generally, implants mean a substitute that replaces an original body tissue, but in dentistry, mean implanting an artificial tooth.
A dental root that is formed of titanium having no rejection symptom against a human body is implanted into an alveolar bone, and then an artificial tooth is fixed thereon to recover the function of the original tooth. In the case of general prostheses and dentures, surrounding teeth or bones are damaged over time, but in the case of implants, peripheral dental tissues are not damaged, and no caries arise while having the same function and shape as natural teeth. Accordingly, the implants can be used semi-permanently.
Generally, when implant is performed on an alveolar bone, there should be an alveolar bone wide enough to perform implant. When the width of the alveolar bone of a patient is too small to perform implant, the alveolar bone of the patient is incised by a chisel, and then a gap created by the chisel is expanded by a spreader or an osteotome to perform implant.
In this case, however, three different tools such as chisel, spreader, and osteotome are needed, and two or more different processes have to be performed. Also, since a great pressure is apt to be concentrated on one spot, lateral bone pieces may be fractured to fail to expand. In order to overcome the above limitations, many studies have been conducted.
For example, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0119628 discloses a new platform including a dental implant (1) and related parts. The dental implant (1) and the related parts have reduced diameters, and particularly, they are appropriate for a certain application for treating a fine width region of a bone peak. In order to obtain the dental implant (1) and the related parts that are for fine width type but are still strong and reliable, technology of re-adjusting and optimizing certain features and geometrical shape of the dental implant (1) and the related parts is disclosed.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0821074 discloses a bone tissue dilator for maintaining an expanded state of the bone tissue incised on an operation spot where dental implant is to be performed. The bone tissue dilator includes a support piece (20) with a through hole having a spiral groove on an inner circumferential surface, the support piece (20) being disposed parallelly to a device body (10), a fixing piece (30) with an insertion space (32) on the center thereof, the fixing piece (30) being disposed perpendicularly to the device body (10), an operation piece (40) inserted into the through hole (24) of the support piece (20) and having a spiral groove (42) on the outer circumferential surface thereof, engaged with a spiral groove (22) on the inner circumferential surface of the through hole (24), the operation piece (40) moving forward and backward in the through hole (24) as being revolved by a screw driver (60), and a movement expanding piece (50) inserted into the front side of the through hole (24) of the support piece (20) and disposed at the front side of an operation axis (52) interlocking with the operation piece (40), the movement expanding piece (50) being located on the same line as the fixing piece (30) in the insertion space (32) of the center of the fixing piece (30).
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0630304 discloses a reamer for operating implant including an incision part that forms a hole for implant placement in a bone, and a connection part having a smaller diameter than that of the incision part and downwardly extending from the incision part. The incision part includes a projecting surface formed by upwardly protruding one side including the outer circumference among the whole surface of the top of the incision part such that a step is formed; a recessed surface formed by recessing one side of the whole surface of the incision part in contrast to the projecting surface and having an inverse inclination to the clockwise direction; a cut edge horizontally formed on a connection spot of the step and the projecting surface such that a cutting process is safely performed without a damage of a membrane of a sinus by uniformly distributing a strength while maintaining a horizontal line contact with the sinus; and a discharge passage formed by cutting from one side of the top of the incision part, i.e., a certain spot between the projecting surface and the recessed surface to a spot slightly distant from the bottom of the incision part.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0884211 discloses a piezotome for a sinus vertical approach operation. The piezotome includes a piezo body having one end fixedly inserted into a hand piece of a piezo main device, a piezo pole extending to the other end of the piezo body and having a linear or bent structure, and a piezo tip with a plurality of cutting blades at a uniform interval to perform cutting on the end portion of the piezo pole.
The plurality of cutting blades (14) of the piezo tip (13) is formed to have a semi-spherical shape in which each end portion converges toward the front end. A water supply hole (15) is formed in the center of the inside of the piezotome to pass through the piezo body (11), the piezo pole (12), and the piezo tip (13). A stopper (16) integrally protrudes from the outer circumferential surface of the piezo pole (12) to restrict an insertion distance according to the thickness of a remaining bone.